Ron Zwanenburg has had a garden center for years almost at Volkel Air Base. He notices that the F-35 makes much more noise than the old F-16. Yet he is used to the planes and knows how to live around them.
Ron walks through his garden center De Zwaan. The only thing between its place and the runway of Volkel airbase is the main road from Uden to Gennep. When the fighter jets take off, they come right past his shop.
A series of four takes off. It makes a hell of a noise. You can no longer understand each other. And these are all F-16s. The F-35 has not yet flown this Friday. “This one is on the right track”, Ron points out. “These will be the guys from the base themselves. A strange pilot sometimes wants to fly off the wrong way. Then they almost fly off the roof of the garden center. Yes, you can submit a complaint. And something is being done about it. But it has already happened.”
“It was already near the edge in terms of sound.”
Ron has been used to the airbase almost all his life. And his customers don’t know any better that he is so close to his store. “My customers come from the region. They know. If one of them happens, we just keep quiet for a while,” he says. “If there are a few at the same time, it’s more annoying. Then we say ‘what a noise those things make’ and go back to the order of the day.”
But still, that F-35 makes much more noise than the F-16. “The sound is much more intense,” explains Ron. “Of course we are already used to the necessary here. But it is quite heavy, intense even. It also takes much longer for the noise to go away. It goes from 100 to 105 decibels. Yes, the 5 decibels are extra. Because it was already near the edge of what people can handle in terms of sound. Now we are going over it.”
“They have to listen to the complaints.”
All those years so close to Volkel Air Base, Ron is also starting to leave his mark. “I can notice it in my ears, it’s bothering me more and more. That’s because of all the years you’ve heard those planes take to the skies. You can put in earplugs, but often you are too late or you have your hands full.”
“They must do something to limit the nuisance,” Ron points to the airbase. “They have to listen to the complaints. The F-35s are necessary. But try to take the neighbors into account as much as possible. For example, by adjusting the way of flying, and not flying too many at once.”
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